


just make it up

by ionlyloveyouironically



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Arguing, M/M, just lightly bc thats not the focus, pynch - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 07:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9593063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ionlyloveyouironically/pseuds/ionlyloveyouironically
Summary: Gansey and Ronan have a fight.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Vaguely ooc because they resolve the issue with words like adults.
> 
> Title from Brother by Gerard Way (because honestly what a Gansey&Ronan song).

Adam knew as soon as he heard the squealing of tires in the parking lot that Ronan was not in a good mood. It became even more apparent when Ronan slammed into the actual church, where he only sat for a few minutes before stomping his way up the narrow staircase to Adam’s apartment and slamming his hand on the door until Adam opened up.

He’d opened the door, and Ronan had slid past without touching or looking at him. Now he stalked around the small room, his hands knotting up in fists every now and then. Adam had no fear of Ronan hitting him, but old habits die hard, so he sat on his mattress in the farthest corner and pulled his knees up to watch Ronan.

After a few more minutes, Adam said, “C’mere.”

“No.”

“Ronan.” Adam stretched his legs out and held an arm out. “Come here.”

He glared over. “Fucking _no_. I don’t wanna touch you when I’m this mad.”

“Too bad.” He shook his arm for emphasis.

Ronan swore, and threw himself down under Adam’s arm, jostling him and the entire mattress. Adam rested his arm across Ronan’s shoulders and smoothed his hand down the back of Ronan’s head slowly. Ronan froze, so Adam kept it up until he let out his breath and relaxed into Adam’s side.

“I fucking hate when you do that.”

“No you don’t, or you wouldn’t let me do it.” Ronan snorted in answer, and Adam asked, “What’s got you so pissy?”

In a harsh exhale, he answered, “ _Gansey_.” His name sounded like a particularly filthy swear word.

Adam looked at him in surprise. Ronan’s handsome face was a mask of stone-cold anger that Adam had only ever seen when Ronan argued with Declan, which was truthfully the angriest Ronan ever got. “What about Gansey?”

Ronan did his smoker’s exhale, and turned his face away for a moment before looking forward again. “I found out he made a deal with Child. Monmouth for my diploma.”

Adam wasn’t surprised. He’d known Gansey had something shady going on with the headmaster, and that he’d go through hell for Ronan. Losing Monmouth was probably inconsequential to Ronan obtaining a future, in Gansey’s mind.

“I asked him about it. We both said a lot of shit, and then he mentions how hard it’s been to deal with me since my father died,” he finished sardonically.

Adam’s eyebrows shot up. He’d known how Gansey felt, but he never thought he’d be so tactless to say that to Ronan.

Ronan ducked his head to watch his fingers tug on his leather bracelets. “He said ‘Ronan Before’ was easier to be friends with.” The mocking tone was gone from his voice. “That’s how he thinks of me, with a before and after. He’s only been friends with me this whole time out of obligation.”

Adam truthfully didn’t know what to do; he’d rarely, if ever, been in the position of having to comfort someone. He didn’t even know if Ronan needed comforting.

Ronan stared down at his hands. “He’s felt sorry for me this whole time. Poor fucking baby.” He scowled again, and turned his head violently away.

“Is that what this is? You’re feeling sorry for yourself because you feel insulted?” He withdrew his arm and pushed Ronan’s shoulder. He actually felt a little annoyed now. Ronan looked at him and opened his mouth, but Adam cut him off. “First of all, you know what Gansey’s like when he’s doing something out of obligation, and you know that’s not how he treats you. Second of all, I really don’t think Gansey’s even capable of feeling sorry for other people.” That would imply Gansey thought he was better than anyone else, which had taken Adam too long to figure out wasn’t true.

“That’s rich, coming from you,” Ronan snapped.

“Yeah, so I should know, shouldn’t I?” Adam snapped back.

They glared at each other for a moment before Ronan scoffed meanly. “I should’ve known you’d take his side-”

“There _are_ no sides, you’re both wrong! He shouldn’t think about you the way he does, but honestly, what did you expect?” Adam was almost yelling; he didn’t understand what Ronan meant by that jab, and it made him angry. He leveled out his voice. “You did your damnedest to make sure you were too sharp to handle, of course he started taking care of you. That’s basically his factory setting.”

Ronan scoffed again, softer this time, and looked away. He appeared to be thinking. Adam wanted to tell him how unattractive he looked when he moped, but he’d save it for later. After a few minutes he got up and started getting ready for bed, tossing the book he’d been reading onto his desk. When he came out of the bathroom Ronan had kicked his boots off and was lounging on his bed.

Adam stood over him and asked, “What did you mean, of course I’d take Gansey’s side?” Before he’d even finished the question, Ronan was groaning and throwing both arms over his face.

“I meant fucking nothing,” he said, muffled.

“Ronan, look at me.” Adam’s tired drawl made it sound like _looki’ me_. When Ronan didn’t move his arms Adam nudged him in the ribs with his foot. Ronan started and grabbed Adam’s calf and ankle, and looked up at him.

Adam would not be swayed. “What did you mean?”

Ronan groaned more petulantly this time and tossed his head back against the mattress, though he was careful to not upset Adam’s one-legged balance. He finally answered, “You always liked Gansey more than you liked me.”

“Definitely,” Adam deadpanned. “That’s why I put up with Gansey’s ugly pity parties, and also why he’s in my bed right now.”

“I’m never ugly,” Ronan protested, tugging on Adam’s leg. Adam let himself fall heavily onto Ronan in response, and was satisfied at Ronan’s little _oof_ at Adam’s weight.

After they situated themselves into a comfortable position, Adam told him, “You have to talk to Gansey about this, you know.”

Ronan sighed harshly against the side of Adam’s neck. “You’re telling me this _now_ , after I just got comfortable?”

“You know what I mean, asswipe. Sleep here so you can calm down and stop being such a brat, and talk to him tomorrow.”

“Fine.” He turned on his side facing away, so Adam seized the opportunity to wrap an arm around his waist and pull him flush against him.

“Hey, you don’t actually doubt how much I like you, right?” Adam asked softly.

Ronan made a noise in the back of his throat that was at odds with the gentle hand that smoothed down Adam’s arm. “No, Parrish, I know how much you want this sweet ass.” But he relaxed fractionally into Adam, so Adam knew what he meant.

“Damn straight,” he muttered, and kissed the back of Ronan’s neck, and fell asleep.

///

Gansey was in the middle of a distressing dream when a hand slapped down on the table near his head and he bolted upright. There was bright sunlight streaming into Monmouth, and his headphones still played in his ears. He looked up to find Ronan standing over him. “Ronan? What are-”

“Jesus, Gansey.” Ronan ripped the earbuds out of Gansey’s ears so he could hear. “You have a whole entire bed that you insist should be in the middle of the damn room, maybe you could try sleeping on it sometime.”

Gansey looked around, confused. He didn’t remember falling asleep, but he remembered watching the sunrise. “What time is it?”

“It’s like two in the afternoon, dude. Did you sleep at all last night?”

“Ah.” Gansey rubbed his eyes, trying to wake up more fully. Ronan was making him nervous. Why was Ronan making him nervous? “I thought I’d spend some time reading about the one particular forest Jane mentioned interest in-”

“Gross.”

“-and the last thing I recall is the sun rising.”

Ronan was quiet for a moment, then, “Is it because we fought yesterday?”

Gansey stopped rubbing his eyes, and then suddenly remembered their argument yesterday and how they’d yelled at each other. He’d lost his temper, and Ronan had barely kept his in check. He cleared his throat. “I am sorry for speaking to you that way yesterday.”

Ronan scoffed and pushed off from the desk to fling himself onto Gansey’s bed. “Stop being so fucking polite, Dick.”

“Well, Ronan, some of us like to use the manners we were taught-”

“Can it.” The utterly serious tone of Ronan’s voice made Gansey quiet, and Ronan stood from the bed and crossed his arms. Gansey stood as well and leaned against his desk. “Listen, I am not your problem to deal with.”

“Lynch-”

He untucked one of his hands to make a sharp gesture. “ _No_ , it’s my turn to talk and then you go. That’s how this works. Alright?”

Gansey nodded slightly. “Alright.”

Ronan punched out a breath. “I had a list of things I was gonna say and now you fucked it up.” He uncrossed his arms to rub both hands over his head then clasp his hands behind his neck. It struck Gansey as an oddly vulnerable thing for him to do. “I’m not your problem, and it pisses me off that that’s how you think of me, like something you’re always doing damage control for. It pisses me off that you pulled a fucking Declan and didn’t trust me to make my own fucking decisions, and it pisses me off that you think of me as some fucked up kid who was irreparably damaged when my dad died.”

Gansey wanted to say something in his defense, but he didn’t want to continue speaking over Ronan. And everything he said was true, anyway.

“Let’s get one thing straight: I’m not a different person than I was before he died. I didn’t completely change when I cut my stupid shitty hair. I was _grieving_ , Gansey. I still am. You can’t understand what it was like.” He looked away for a moment and then back, and raised a hand to rub the stubble on his jaw.

“I-”

Ronan pointed at him sharply. “I found my father with his head bashed into a bloody fucking pulp outside of my home, right by the same fucking car I drive every day. Shit’s kind of fucked up, Gansey.”

Gansey’s chest hurt. His jaw ached from clenching it.

“And I didn’t want anyone’s sympathy, because they couldn’t understand, so I made it hard for anyone to feel sorry for me. Three cheers for bad coping or what the fuck ever, I dunno. My point is, I’m not your responsibility, I’m not some fucking grief-stricken kid that doesn’t know what he does. There are consequences to my actions and you shouldn’t try to protect me from them when they’re my own choices. It’s insulting.” He took a deep breath in and out, and then looked Gansey in the eye and said, softer than anything else he’d said today, “I don’t need you to take care of me.”

“I know,” Gansey sighed. He ran a hand over his face and for some reason felt his eyes sting. Maybe it was the two days without sleep before the fight, or the viciousness of the fight itself, or the fact that he didn’t know how to deal with a Ronan Lynch who talked maturely about his feelings. “You’re right. It’s wrong of me to think of you like that. It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. I didn’t know what to do, so I just took over, I suppose. Adam has always said I’m a control freak.”

“You kind of are, dude.”

Gansey laughed weakly. “I just never know what to do outside of polite society.”

“Bullshit.” Ronan took a step forward and crossed his arms again. “You’re better with people than Declan is, and he’s a fucking extrovert weirdo.” He looked away and then back again. “I know you care, man, so you can chill out and stop looking like the world’s gone to shit. I know we’ve had worse fights before.”

Gansey laughed again, just as shaky. “You know, I don’t think we have? It’s always been passive aggressive sniping before.”

“Wow, we’re growing up. This fucking sucks.”

“I do care, though, Ronan. And I’m sorry I raised my voice-” Ronan started a drawn-out obnoxious grown, so Gansey raised his voice to be heard over it. “-at you like that, that’s not the way someone should treat their best friend. And I will do better in the future to be respectful and unassuming of how you may be feeling.”

“Are you done, Dick?” Gansey nodded. Ronan kicked his desk chair around and threw himself into it. “That was a nice speech, where’d you get that, _Lifetime_?”

“Blue, actually,” he answered.

Ronan scoffed. “Bet she was pissed at me.”

“Oh, at me, actually.” Ronan raised an eyebrow. “She gave me quite a dressing-down when I explained what caused our spat.”

“Ooh, she undressed you, huh?” He wiggled his eyebrows and cackled when Gansey swatted at him. “Listen, when was the last time you got more than two hours of sleep in bed?”

“I resent being lectured about sleep by _you_ of all people.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Come to the Barns for the weekend.”

Gansey started, and looked at Ronan in surprise. “Excuse me?”

Ronan rolled his eyes. “You haven’t been over in forever, you have nothing to do this weekend, and I need help cleaning out the attic since I fucking hate doing it.”

Gansey smiled. “That would be swell.”

Ronan scoffed, “Fuck off, Dick,” but he reached up to rough up Gansey’s hair just the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Ronan apologizes later for the mean unspecified things he said to Gansey.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Any mistakes are mine, because I need a beta. If you want to be my editor, hit me up on [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/1980salienboi) and [tumblr](http://1980salienboi.tumblr.com/)


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